Liberty invests in Magona pickling line restart

The pickling line at Italian La Magona plant in Piombino is being restarted as the new owner Liberty House has allocated a €5 million ($5.5m) investment, a union source tells Kallanish. This follows an inauguration event with Liberty House chairman Sajeev Gupta. Liberty has been disclosing details of its progress since acquiring a series of mainland European plants from ArcelorMittal (see related article and below).

The pickling line that has been idled for a number of years will be revamped and restarted early next year. The unions say that they hope that the two coating lines that are currently idled will also be restarted.

The new management of Magona under ceo Giovanni Carpino are also authorised to source coils from other producers in addition to the 5-year agreement that Liberty has with ArcelorMittal for coil procurement.     

Liberty has purchased a number of plants controlled by ArcelorMittal, put on the market following the acquisition of Italian group Ilva. The plants include ArcelorMittal Ostrava (Czech Republic), ArcelorMittal Galati (Romania), ArcelorMittal Skopje (North Macedonia), ArcelorMittal Piombino (Italy), and ArcelorMittal Dudelange (Luxembourg). Also included are the HDG lines 4-5 of ArcelorMittal Liège and three other lines located in Tilleur (Belgium).